Series Recap: Yankees mash and maul Tigers

The New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers haven’t been AL East rivals for 20 years. Yet, it didn’t stop the two squads from acting like bitter foes. After throwing up football scores, the Yankees also threw down with the Tigers, taking two of three in the process.

GAME 1

It was an offensive outburst befitting of old Tiger Stadium. The Bronx Bombers unleashed a Motor City mauling of the Tigers, 13-4.

SENIOR AUGUSTO STRIKES AGAIN

The Yanks scoring commenced and was capped off by the red hot Gary Sanchez. A two-run bomb to left by the Bronx Bombers backstop was a 493-foot blast, good enough for the second longest in majors this season.

Sanchez was back at it in the ninth, driving a two-run smash in the opposite direction. It was quite the evening for El Gary, who ran his home run total to 25.

TOUCHDOWN THIRD

In the third, the Yanks continued to pound Matthew Boyd. Aaron Judge set the table with a walk. Ensuing batter Didi Gregorius reached on a generous hit call back to Boyd. Tyler Austin followed with a RBI-single to left. Then, no offense to his wheels but you know you’re having a bad night when you let up a two-run triple to deep right to Todd Frazier.

Tigers skipper Brad Ausmus had seen enough to that point and Boyd was pulled for Warwick Saupold, who gave up a sacrifice fly RBI to left to Ronald Torreyes, making it 7-0.

DROPPED BUT NO DROPOFF

The last time a Yankees manager dropped his slugger in the lineup in Detroit was the 2006 ALDS, when Joe Torre moved Alex Rodriguez to eighth. This time around manager Joe Girardi shifted Judge to the cleanup role, which worked out for him and the aforementioned Sanchez, who looked quite comfortable in the three hole.

The rookie right fielder coaxed three walks and recorded a RBI-single to left in the fifth. Perhaps the biggest relief is his consecutive game strikeout streak finally came to an end.

HICKS CARRIES THE STICKS

Aaron Hicks also had a solid evening at the plate. Hicks drove in three runs, with two of them coming on a homer to right in the seventh.

MASA MOTOWN MOWDOWN

Masahiro Tanaka provided New York with everything they needed. Yes, he was staked to a comfortable advantage before ever toeing the rubber but he made sure to keep down the Detroit bats. Tanaka toiled for seven frames, fanning four, scattering six hits and yielding three runs. A nice confidence boost indeed.

GAME 2

In their 10-2 mauling of the Tigers, there was a lot of Deja vu working in favor of the Yankees. Once again New York tallied a run in virtually every odd inning, ran up a big third inning and Senior Augusto was hammering away.

EL GARY’S AUGUSTO GUSTO

For the second time in as many contests, the Yankees power hitting backstop posted the squad to a 1-0 advantage, crushing a Jordan Zimmerman offering to left in the first.

THIRD IS A CHARM

Sanchez was back at it in the third with a perfectly placed two-run single to left. Judge followed with a booming double to center. Gregorius drove in a run with a single to center. Capping off the scoring was Chase Headley with a sac fly to center.

DIDI GOES DEEP DEEP

Moving to the fifth, Gregorius tagged Zimmerman with a solo homer to right. At 19 home runs, it’s incredible to see Sir Didi nearly match his home run totals from last season already, after missing the first month of this season. With one more home run Gregorius would become the first Yankees shortstop to hit 20 home runs in consecutive seasons.

PICK A TIGER BY THE TOE

Batting ninth it was a big night for “TOE.” With a four-hit game, including a RBI-single in the sixth, Torreyes raised his season batting average to .299 on the campaign.

HEADLEY LAMARR

Headley knocked in another run with a jolt to left against Chad Bell in the seventh.

SEVY’S SMOOTH MOWTOWN MUSIC

On a night when New York pitchers whiffed 13 Detroit batters, Luis Severino was especially dialed in. Severino’s outing marked the 14th start in which he’s allowed one earned run or fewer. The Yankees ace fanned eight across 6.2 frames.

With two down in the sixth, Tommy Kahnle threw behind Cabrera and was ejected. As Aroldis Chapman warmed up, Cabrera and catcher Austin Romine exchanged words and then proceeded to brawl and both were ejected.

Trailing 6-3, the Yankees stormed back in the seventh to tie the contest at six. It might’ve been more if Justin Upton didn’t rob Hicks of a three-run homer in left.

Another turning point came in the bottom half when Dellin Betances nailed James McCann in the helmet. Having issued warnings, the umpires went by the letter of the law and ejected Betances from the game, even though he didn’t appear to be trying to hit him. While hitting a guy in the helmet isn’t good optics, one wonders why the umpires read that as intentional but didn’t toss Fulmer after quite evidently drilled Sanchez earlier? Plus, Robertson, who came in for Betances, also hit a Tigers batter but the umpires didn’t deem it necessary to follow the letter of the law in that case. Strange.

After the ejection, Robertson was forced to enter early and was wild before yielding a three-run double to Jose Iglesias, who also did plenty of chirping and would get popped in the third altercation.

In the eighth, Tigers reliever Alex Wilson nailed Fraizer and the benches cleared for the third time.